Names
by Alexandrorca
Summary: In which Diane and King have their first child, Elaine is SO READY to be an aunt, and Meliodas and Ban throw a contest to name the baby. Request.


Obnoxiously late Tumblr request. My apologies, it took so long because I became a ridiculous perfectionist about this entire fic. Thank you to the lovely nanatsunotaizai-imagines of Tumblr for beta-ing this for me!

So the request was

"hey i really want to say that you are an amazing writer if it's okay to request a kiane one shot sort of like: Diane just gave birth to her first child. While the family of three enjoyed the intimate moment of rest in their house, King reads his Friends(along with Elaine Elizabeth Howzer and Gil's) suggestions on the baby's name, helping the parents to decide. until king comes with the perfect name ( if you can write the name it well be great cuse i have no names )"

Hope you like this dear anon!

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"We can't rush this; who knows how many thousands of years she'll have this name? We better make sure we pick a good one."

He nodded at her. "Although, even after all this people might just call her by a nickname anyway."

She laughed under her breath. "Maybe, Harlequin, but it's still important."

"Of course." He leaned forward from where he lounged on Chastiefol, and he noticed her trying to mask a yawn. It was a difficult task considering both of her hands were occupied with cradling their day-old child.

"You must be exhausted."

"A little."

"Why don't you get some rest, honey? I'll wake you up when everyone gets here."

She shook her head. "I'm not that tired!" But the sleepiness in her voice betrayed her. "I want to choose a name…"

"We can later. But you need to rest." With a mere flick of a finger the blanket Elizabeth had knitted as a housewarming gift rose up and settled on the giantess. King took extra care to arrange the blanket around his daughter so that it wouldn't cover her face in her sleep.

He floated over and gave his wife a kiss on the cheek, which she answered with a soft kiss to the top of his head. He floated down to the baby in her arms. She also looked as if she could barely keep her eyes open, but she still smiled at him warmly and reached out with her hands. When he gave her a kiss, she cooed back appreciatively, and he melted.

He still couldn't believe that this adorable little one was his daughter. Well, she was almost twice his size at only a day old, so little one was more of an expression, but still. A dusting of fine orange-brown hair covered her head, and though her eyes were still the blue of a newborn, Diane insisted they would become his shade as well. Secretly, he hoped she would inherit her mother's beautiful violet eyes.

She had already fallen asleep now, and Diane wouldn't give up her fruitless attempts to stay awake, so he hurried out of the room. He shut the door gently behind him with a wave of his hand. A blushing smile filled his face as he left his family, but it slowly faded as he stared around the living room. _There_. There was a loose nail sticking a few millimeters up from a floorboard, and King quickly set about shoving it deep back into the wood with his magic. Now he looked around the room in a panic. He was certain they had baby-proofed everything. Hadn't they? If she took more after her fairy side, she could be flying tomorrow and walking the next. Clearly the entire house needed another look over. That looked sharp. She could trip over this. What if she put that in her mouth? Oh goddesses, the entire house was too dangerous for their daughter! They needed to redo everything before-

"Well, looks like you're adjusting to fatherhood well~"

King whirled around to see who had torn him from his anxious mutterings. "Oh. H-hi there, Ban." He said, trying to calm himself, until something occurred to him. "How did you even get in here?!"

"Hey." Ban said completely ignoring the question. "So where are Diane and the little rascal anyway? Can't wait to see-"

But both men were stunned as a yellow blur barreled into King at full force. King found himself pulled into a hug and swept up into the air as he was spun around over and over.

"Congratulations, Brother!" Elaine nearly squealed as her spinning finally slowed to a stop. "This is so exciting! I'm so happy for you two! Where are they? I have to congratulate Diane! Oh, Harlequin, can I meet my niece now?"

King couldn't help but laugh as he extricated himself from his sister's grip. Then he put a finger to his lips when he remembered. "Shhh. They're sleeping. You can see them later."

"Oh. Well, okay, that gives me time to show you everything I brought!"

"Everything you…"

King glanced at Ban, who rubbed his neck sheepishly and flashed him a grin that seemed to say "I tried to stop her."

"Come here, follow me!" She said excitedly, and King and Ban wandered after her to the kitchen. She snapped her fingers, and boxes and bags full of all manner of baby-related paraphernalia flooded through the front door and surrounded them. "I've got toys she can use when she's a baby and when she's a toddler and a child, baby bottles, food, diapers, clothes- you didn't tell me what size she was, so I have fairy and giant and in-between sizes for each outfit- and-"

"That's really nice of you, Elaine, but Diane and I already went shopping…"

"Really? Good, now you have extras!"

King had absolutely no idea what they would do with all this stuff. "…Thank you."

"Oh no, Meliodas, I think we were supposed to bring presents!"

"They'll be fine. Look at all this, they have enough to last them a few centuries." He said casually as he helped his pregnant wife into the house. "Hey, King, congrats!"

"We'll have to bring something over later." Elizabeth nodded to herself, then noticed everyone else. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks, everybody." King smiled, but Elizabeth had already noticed Elaine.

She smiled at her, knowing how thrilled Elaine had been throughout Diane's entire pregnancy. "And congratulations to you on becoming an aunt!"

Elaine grinned back. "And to you on being a mother! He's due soon, isn't he?"

Elizabeth nodded, but then Elaine looked nervously at the presents. "Do you think I brought too much?"

"Not at all. It's perfect." Ban said as he pulled her into an embrace.

"Hello, everyone." Gowther quietly announced his presence as Escanor strutted in with Merlin.

The boisterous Sin pulled the tiny fairy into a hug. "Congratulations on this most momentous occasion!" He announced as King tried to wriggle away from the oppressive heat Escanor radiated at the middle of the day.

Merlin smiled at him, as if there was nothing wrong with Escanor smothering him. "Congratulations, indeed. A half-giant half-fairy child is almost unprecedented. I didn't even know it was possible until I looked into it more."

"Th-thanks. Neither did we." He choked out, and then somehow he was free and Gowther was inches from his face.

"Did you like the books?"

King had almost forgotten about the parenting books Gowther had selected for him and brought him once a month. "The first few were very informative, thank you. But when Diane got farther along, I didn't really have time to read. Sorry."

"That is okay. I brought more."

"O- oh. Thanks, Gowther."

"So, what's her name?" Meliodas asked, and suddenly all eyes were on King.

"Well, she doesn't have one yet."

A moment's pause.

He expected the uproar that admission would cause, but everyone was getting way too loud. "Shhh! Diane and the baby are sleeping!"

"So you just call her 'the baby'? Come on, King, I know you guys can do better than that." Meliodas laughed.

He frowned. "It's important not to rush this sort of thing. She'll have this name for thousands of years," he insisted with his arms crossed, echoing Diane's point from earlier.

Ban shook his head, though he was still hugging Elaine. "Good thing, too, since it looks like she won't have one for the first hundred."

"What are we talking about?" Gilthunder asked as he and Hauser walked in next.

"King and Diane haven't chosen a name for the baby yet." Elizabeth explained.

Hauser looked at her excitedly. "I have some ideas!"

"Me too!" Elaine added.

"I'm sure I could think of the most beautiful name the world has ever seen!" Escanor announced.

Meliodas clapped his hands together, nodding. "Then it's settled then. We're going to have a contest."

"We're _what_?" King look at them incredulously.

"Can you go get the stuff, Ban?"

"Already done, Captain." King looked over to see parchment and every quill that they owned clutched in the bandit's hands.

King sputtered, "How did you even know where to find that?"

"That's not important. All right, everyone, come take a piece of paper and a quill and write your favorite three names."

"Captain!" He hovered a few inches off the ground, hands balled into fists and his glaring red face close to Meliodas's own. "Captain, you can't make this a competition! It's not like we're playing for the last pint of ale. This is about my _child_."

But Meliodas's grin never faded. "Sure, sure. But your kid still needs a name, so it can't hurt to go along with it. You and Diane can judge, and you don't even have to use them if you don't want to."

"But I-" King sighed and sank back to the ground, defeated. "I guess it would be nice to have more ideas."

"Great, let's get started!" The room erupted into cheers once it was decided that the contest was officially happening. Everyone assembled around the Captain and Ban as they passed out paper and quills. As he watched his friends furiously scribbling and crossing out names and brainstorming with each other, King realized he should probably wake up Diane.

He flew out the door- at least he tried, but he nearly collided with her in the doorway. "Why is it so loud out here?" She asked with a hint of drowsiness lingering in her voice. The moment everyone heard her, the contest was momentarily forgotten as everyone surrounded Diane with their congratulations while gushing over the baby.

"Hi everyone!" She grinned, not intimidated at all by the surge of noisy people congregating around her ankles. She sat down crosslegged on the floor so that everyone could get a better look at her daughter. As Elaine flew up to get an even closer look, her face glowed.

"She's beautiful, Diane."

Diane thanked her as her daughter reached out a hand toward her aunt. Elaine laughed in delight, doing a somersault in the air and then grabbing her niece's finger. "She likes me already!"

Diane looked around at the presents littering the kitchen. "Is this all for us?"

"Yes! Ban and I went shopping for you guys!"

"Even though we already had…" King muttered, and Ban smacked his shoulder.

The giantess thanked Elaine sincerely. "Wow, this is so nice! You can never be too prepared!"

King tried to protest again, but was stopped when Ban punched him harder. He decided to explain the contest instead. Diane's face brightened, and she laughed a little. "What a great idea! Let's hear them!"

"I don't believe everyone has finished." Gowther told them, so Diane and King went off with their daughter to wait in another room while everyone else finished up the contest. Soon, Hauser arrived with a stack of papers in his arms so tall that his face was hidden.

"We figured you two would like to look at them alone. I'll make sure no one makes too much of a mess of your house, so come find us when you've decided! Mine are on the top." He winked and grinned mischievously, and made his way out of the room.

King made the parchment float gently towards him and Diane. "That's a lot of paper. I thought the Captain said they could only enter three names…"

"Even better! Harlequin, can you hand some to me?"

Diane shifted their daughter so that she mostly lay across her lap, and waggled her free hand at him. He nodded, picked up about half of the submissions and carried them over to her.

"Great. Let's see…" King put off reading the ideas for a little while just so he could watch Diane's reactions to the papers. She was just so expressive, he could instantly tell how she felt about each name without her saying a word. And every time she found a name she liked, he couldn't tear his eyes away, because she was even more beautiful when she smiled.

"Harlequin, aren't you going to look too? Or do you want me to read them all to you?"

"Y-yeah. Um... Yeah, okay, why don't we do that?" Though they hadn't been married very long, they'd still been together quite a long time, so it really didn't make sense that she still made him so flustered sometimes. He wondered if she always would.

"Okay. This one says… Cassia."

He glanced over at the baby who was once again asleep in her mother's arms. "It's pretty, but I don't know if that really fits her."

"Yeah, I feel the same. Next one is...Terra. No way, not for my little girl. Every other giant has that name."

"Okay, what else is there?"

"Aster? What a strange name."

"It's a flower, actually."

He appreciated the fact that his friends seemed to have gone with a theme here. Almost all of the names had to do with the earth, like Admina or Demeter, were plants like Anise or Zinnia, or came from gems like Agate and Citrine. He was becoming quite fond of Citrine, actually.

But… Wait. He had his own idea. There was a name that was both a flower and a gem, a name he realized would be absolutely fitting for the child of a giant and a fairy. He took one of the last few papers left and scribbled his idea on the back. He passed it to Diane with the rest of the names.

She read through the rest with similar commentary, but when she reached the name he had submitted, she stopped.

"I like it! Wow, I wonder whose idea this was? I'll have to thank them!"

He failed miserably at keeping a straight face as he grinned. "I don't know. But that name is perfect!"

She didn't seem to notice, and smiled back innocently at him. "So you agree? You think this is the one?"

He nodded, and she stood up suddenly, somehow not waking the newly-named baby in her arms. "Then we have to go tell everyone!"

"W-wait." Diane looked at him curiously, and he floated up to her face. "Diane, can I hold her?" His happy wife had barely let go of their child once since she was born, and he wasn't a hundred percent sure how this would work, but he wanted to hold his daughter so badly.

"I'd love to say yes but… Are you sure you can?"

"Trust me."

She studied him fiercely for a few minutes, then relented and held her up to him, refusing to actually let her go until she was sure King could hold her. His only idea was to lift her from Diane's arms, and then he realized he could cradle her head in his arms while his magic kept the rest of her body afloat. She gurgled in that adorable way that only babies can, and King found his heart completely melting again. He gave her another gentle kiss on the head.

"Hi there, Hyacinth."


End file.
